Call centers distribute calls and other types of communications or work items to available service agents in accordance with various predetermined criteria. A given call center may be implemented in a geographically distributed manner, e.g., as a combination of multiple distributed call center sites at different locations. Such an arrangement is commonly referred to as a multi-site call center or more generally a multi-site call processing system. In multi-site systems of this type, a centralized load balancing process is typically utilized in order to distribute communications among the various sites for processing.
An exemplary multi-site call processing system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,640, issued Oct. 14, 2003 in the name of inventors R. A. Cohen et al. and entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Analysis of Load-Balanced Multi-Site Call Processing Systems,” which is commonly assigned herewith and incorporated by reference herein.
Despite the numerous advantages provided by the techniques described in the above-cited reference, a need remains for further improvements, particularly in terms of enhancing the dependability of multi-site call processing systems. For example, an important cause of instability in a given multi-site call processing system relates to an overload situation as endpoints attempt to register after a network failure, equipment shutdown or other similar condition. Techniques are needed which can provide improved performance in these and other situations.